Bearing support for a crusher and the like



May i3, i969 R. J. GAsPARAc ET A1. 3,443,846

BEARING SUPPORT FOR A CRUSHER AND THE LIKE Filed July 5, 1967 sheet of 2 f l 5J.

i 1 if May. '13, 1969 R. J. GAsPARAc: ETAL 3,443,846

BEARING SUPPORT FOR A CRUSHER AND THE LIKE Filed July s, 1967 Sheet United States Patent 3,443,846 BEARING SUPPORT FOR A CRUSHER AND THE LIKE Rudolph J. Gasparac and Helmut Peters, Milwaukee, Wis.,

assignors to Nordberg Manufacturing Company, Milwaukee, Wis., a corporation of Wisconsin Filed July 5, 1967, Ser. No. 651,277 Int. Cl. H02k 17/10 U.S. Cl. 308-172 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The invention relates to supporting means for the lower end of the shaft of a gyratory crusher and to lubricating means for such supporting means. The crusher shaft is supported at its lower end on a step bearing which may be upwardly or downwardly adjusted, the upper end of the shaft being slidable, or axially movable, in a top bearing. In the structure described and claimed herein the shaft is adjusted along its axis by a cylinder and piston structure. The piston is raised, lowered or positioned by a body of liquid delivered to the cylinder at a level beneath the piston. The invention relates primarily to the supply of lubricating and cooling oil to the bearing surface of the bottom of the crushing shaft and to the supporting and adjusting assembly therefor.

Our invention relates to an improvement in bearing and supporting means for the main shaft of a gyratory crusher and for lubricating means therefor.

One purpose is to provide improved lubricating and cooling means for the step bearing of a gyratory crusher shaft.

Another purpose is to provide an improved step bearing with an improved means for circulating lubricating oil thereabout.

Another purpose is to provide improved means for controlling the pressure of the lubricating oil as applied to the step bearing of a gyratory crusher.

Another purpose is to provide means for lubricating and cooling the step bearing of a gyratory crusher in which the crusher shaft is raised, lowered, or positioned by liquid pressure.

Other purposes will appear from time to time in the course of the specification and claims.

We illustrate the invention more or less diagrammatically in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a side elevation, with parts broken away and parts in section, of a gyratory crusher to which our invention is applied; and

FIGURE 2 is an axial section, on an enlarged scale, through the step bearing of FIGURE l and the lubricating system therefor.

Like parts are indicated by like symbols throughout the specification and drawings.

Referring to the drawings, 1 indicates generally the outer frame of a gyratory crusher to which our invention may be applied. Within this outer frame, the details of which do not of themselves form part of the present invention, are a plurality of annular members 2, which, together, form a bowl liner dening the outer surface of a crushing cavity. The lower portion of the frame 3, which is secured to the frame assembly, for example, by bolts or rods 3a, includes generally radial webs 3b and horizontal members 3c which, together, connect to a hub portion 4 within which rotates an eccentrically apertured sleeve, indicated at 5. The sleeve has a downward and outward extension or step 6, to which is secured a bevel gear 7 which meshes with a pinion 8 driven by any suitable power source. As the pinion 8 is rotated it meshes with the gear 7 and rotates the eccentrically apertured sleeve 5, and gyrates the below described crusher shaft.

Secured to the lower part of the frame is a supporting and bearing assembly, indicated in detail in FIGURE 2. It includes an annulus or hydraulic support assembly 10 suitably secured by bolts or the like 11, with nuts 12. The annulus 10 is downwardly continued by a generally cylindrical wall 13, the cylinder thus formed being closed by a cylinder head generally indicated as 14, which, in turn, is secured in position by suitable bolts or tie rods 15 and nuts 16. An outer protective housing 17 is indicated which is held in position, for example, by the lower nuts 18 on the bolts or tie rods 15. Mounted in the cylinder thus formed are a top sleeve 19 and a bottom sleeve 20 suitably fixed within the cylinder, and shown as separated by an interval 20a.

21 indicates a gyrated crusher head, as shown in FIG- URE 1, which may be mounted on or with a suitable crusher shaft. The upper end of the shaft is shown at 21a and the lower end at 22 in FIGURE l. 23 is any suitable upper bearing assembly which receives the upper shaft end 21a, the shaft being gyrated by the rotation of the eccentrically apertured sleeve 5, into the eccentric aperture 5a of which the lower shaft end penetrates. Secured to the lower shaft end 22 is a swivel plate, generally indicated at 24 in FIGURE 2, which rests on a socket plate 25, the two plates having conforming spherical surfaces which abut as at 26. A thrust plate 27 has a plane upper surface which contacts the plane lower surface of the socket plate 25. The thr-ust plate, in turn, is mounted on and centered on the piston structure, generally indicated at 28. The upper surface or wall of the piston 28 is shown as having an upwardly extending centering portion or boss 29, about which the thrust plate 27 is centered. 31 indicates a piston support plate beneath which is a piston cap 32. The piston support plate abuts the lower edge of the circumferential skirt of the piston 28. It will be understood that the details of the piston and of its associated parts may be varied substantially, and our invention is not limited to such piston details.

It will be understood that in supporting the lower end 22 of the crusher shaft on the above described structure the piston assembly may be supported and adjusted by any suitable fluid or liquid system which, for example, may include a liquid delivered to the space between the piston cap 32 and the cylinder head 14. Without going into detail, we indicate a pressure line 34 extending through any suitable plug 34a to a pressure duct 35 which extends to the space between the members 32 and 14. Thus, by means not herein shown, and not forming part of the present invention, a liquid under pressure may be supplied through the ducts 34, 35 to such space, whereby the piston structure may be held at a predetermined level, or may be raised or lowered as desired.

A primary purpose of our invention is to supply cooling and lubricating oil to the bearing surfaces between the lower end of the crusher shaft 22 and the above described piston assembly, and between theparts of the bearing assembly. We illustrate, for example, a duct 40 which may receive or be connected to any suitable source of lubricating and cooling oil, the details of such source and of the means for supplying the lubricant to the duct 40 being not indicated, since they do not of themselves form part of the present invention.

Considering, particularly, the structure of FIGURE 2, the lubricating and cooling oil enters through the duct or passage 40, which is aligned with the interval 20a be tween the bearing sleeves 19 and 20. The piston 28 is provided with inlet ducts 41 which communicate with the interval 20a and thus -with the lubricant supplied along the duct or passage 40. Any suitable sealing means, O- rings or the like, may be provided as at 42, 43 to prevent leakage along the piston. Thus oil at predetermined pressure flows through the duct 40 and the ducts 41 into the `upward passages 44, and thus to the transverse passage or passages 45, the ends of which are closed as at 46. Thus the flow of lubricant is maintained upwardly through what is shown as an axial passage 47 which extends upwardly through the centering boss 29 of the piston. Thence it flows to the central space 48 of the socket` plate 25 and into the generally axial space or concavity 49, shown within the swivel plate 24. It will be understood that the lower spherical surface of the swivel plate 24 and the upper plane surface of the thrust plate 27 are provided with a plurality of passages 50 and 51, as shown in FIG- URE 2. These passages may be, for example, generally radial. At the lower end of the shaft or the swivel plate 24 these radial passages may communicate by ducts 52 with a discharge channel or passage or duct 53 which has a control flow orifice 54 at its outlet. Similarly, passages 55 communicate with a discharge duct 56 in the thrust plate 27, which has its appropriate control flow orifice 57. The result is that oil is forced into the center chamber at 48 and 49 under pressure from the oil inlet 40. It is desirable that the oil should be at a predetermined or desired pressure between the opposed bearing faces. For example, an oil film is required on the spherical surface between the members 24 and 25, and also between the opposed plane surfaces of the members 25 and 27. To obtain the desired oil film a certain pressure must be f maintained in the central chamber area 48, 49. Oil can be pumped to this chamber through the above described system of ducts at any desired pressure. To obtain the desired or predetermined pressure the discharge orices 54 and 57 must be so dimensioned in relation to inlet pressure at 40 as to maintain the right amount of pressure in the oil film between the said various opposed faces or bearing surfaces. For example, if the orifices 54 and 57 are too large the oil will run out and there will be insuficient pressure, and a failure of the oil fiow. If they are too small too much oil pressure may build up, and may even be enough to lift the shaft upwardly off its seat, breaking contact of the opposed bearing surfaces. What is needed is a balance between the inlet pressure and the orifice areas. The orifice areas may be determined by any suitable orifice elements or fittings, which may be made removable and replaceable for purposes of initial setting or of adjustment, or the like.

In order to make sure that pressure is not lost around the sides of the piston we employ O-rings or other suitable sealing means, as at 42 and 43. Similarly, suitable seals may be placed at other surfaces, as at 60 and 61, whereby the oil flow will be through the above described duct system, and will not by-pass at undesired areas.

It will be understood that whereas we have described and shown a practical application of our invention to the step bearing of a gyratory crusher shaft we do not wish to be limited to our specific disclosure except as we limit ourselves by our claims.

It will be realized that many changes may be made in the size, shape, number and disposition of parts without departing from the spirit of our invention. It will be realized, also, that the details of the piston assembly and bearings may likewise be varied. We therefore wish our description and drawings to be taken as in a broad sense illustrative or diagrammatic rather than as limiting us to our precise showing.

The use and operation of the invention are as follows:

In a gyratory crusher structure such as is generally indicated in FIGURE 1 we illustrate a specific step bearing assembly in detail in FIGURE 2. It will be understood that the adjustment and support of the crusher shaft and head assembly are obtained by the supply of liquid pressure along the pipe 34 and by desired variations in this pressure, whereby the piston assembly, and with it the shaft, may be raised or lowered or kept at a desired adjustment. Our invention relates to the somewhat difficult task of lubricating the bearing surfaces whereby a massive crusher shaft with a massive and heavy crusher head are supported from below rather than suspended from above.

It will be understood that Crushers of this type Imay be made in very large sizes so that the weight of the crusher shaft and head may be tremendous. Hence the great importance of maintaining suitable lubrication and cooling of the spherical surfaces 26 by which the shaft is supported, and of the plane surfaces between -the members 25 and 27. The member 25, as the shaft is gyrated, may have a limited lateral movement in relation to the opposed upper surface of the piston, or, rather, of the opposed upper surface of the thrust plate. Thus the upper spherical surface and the lower plane surface of the socket plate 25 must bc lubricated and cooled 4by a substantial flow of lubricant. We supply the lubricant through the inlet 40 and the ducting system elsewhere herein described, to a central chamber, which includes, for example, the spaces 48 and 49 and the space 27a within the thrust plate 27. We supply the lubricant at a proper pressure to the central chamber thus formed, from which it flows outwardly along the passages 50 and 51 is thereby distributed throughout the proper bearing surfaces. This oil so delivered is prevented from losing its pressure or from dropping to an improperly low pressure by tailoring or controlling the effective size of the orifices at 54 and 57. When these are properly set a predetermined pressure of oil in the central chamber is maintained, and also throughout the radial distributing systems or ducts 48 and 49. The various sealing rings or means above described prevent by-passing or flow of the oil, and the oil can escape in significant quantities only through the apertures 54 and 57, whence it is returned in any suitable manner, or by any suitable circuit, to the lubricant pressure source, not shown.

Whereas we illustrate the cooling passages as formed in the lower surface of the downwardly convex bearing plate 24, and in the upper surface of the upwardly plane plate 27, to deliver oil to the opposed upper and lower surfaces of the socket plate 25, it will be understood that, if desired, the cooling passages could be formed otherwise, for example, in the swivel plate itself. However, the preferred structure is as shown.

We claim:

1. In a step bearing structure for gyratory crushers in combination with a crusher shaft and means for gyrating it, a support for the lower end of the crusher shaft including an upwardly facing bearing surface on the support, a plano-concave socket plate between the lower end of the crusher shaft and the upwardly facing bearing surface, the socket plate having a plane lower bearing surface slidably opposing the upwardly facing bearing surface on the support, a downwardly convex spherical bearing surface on the lower end of the crusher shaft and slidably conforming to the spherical bearing surface of the socket plate, means for suplying a lubricating and cooling liquid for the upper and lower bearing surfaces of the socket plate and the surfaces opposed thereto, including a supply duct extending into the support and constructed to direct a flow of lubricant to a central space within the socket plate, cooling passages extending outwardly from said central space, and means for controlling the rate of discharge of lubricant from the cooling passages and for thereby controlling the pressure of the lubricant as it passes across the bearing surfaces of the socket plate.

2. The structure of claim 1 characterized in that the cooling passages extending outwardly from the central space are generally radial.

3. The structure of claim 1 characterized by and including outlet means for metering the flow of lubricant through the cooling passages.

4. The structure of claim 1 characterized by and in- References Cited cluding outlet means for metering the flow of lubricant UNITED STATES PATENTS through the cooling means, one 0f said metering means being associated with cooling passages for the upper sur- 2,448,936 9/1948 Van Zandt 308-172 face of the socket plate and another being associated with cooling passages for the lower surface 0f the socket plate.

`5. The structure of claim 1 characterized in that the cooling passages are formed externally of the socket M ARTIN P SCHWADRON Primary Examiner plate.

6. The structure of claim 1 characterized in that the 10 F. SUSKO, Assistant Examiner. cooling passages are formed in the socket plate itself.

FOREIGN PATENTS 708,997 5/1954 Great Britain. 

